On 16 Feb 2023, at 20.22, David Mitchell via Origami
wrote:
> The one on the lower left, commonly known as the Woven Heart, is said to be a
> discovery of Hans Christian Andersen. What is said to be the earliest
> surviving example is preserved in the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in
> Odense, Denmark. See, for instance,
> http://hjemmesider.diku.dk/~torbenm/hearts.pdf. I have not been able to
> verify this information.
Yes, we normally attribute the first woven heart to H.C. Andersen, here in
Denmark.
The heart cited by Torben (one of my friends from back when we studied computer
science together, and really clever at making complex hearts) is from the
collection at Odense Museerne:
https://museumodense.dk/genstande/?id=HCA/A-1116-Q
They date it to "probably before the death of HC Ørsted [physicist who was the
first to discover a connection between electricity and magnetism]", that is
before 1851, as that heart was made for their Christmas Tree. As the first
Christmas tree came to Copenhagen in 1811
(https://www.danskskovforening.dk/juletraeets-historie/), it should be made in
the span of those 40 years.
The date of 1860's Torben states, is given in other places as well, such as
https://www.hcandersen-homepage.dk/?page_id=19560, somewhat contradicting
Odense Museum. though their guess that it should be before the death of Ørsted,
given that is should be cut and woven at a visit in his home, seems legit.
Anyway, we do a lot of them. At this bookseller you should find at least a
handful of dedicated woven hearts books.
https://www.saxo.com/dk/products/search?query=julehjerter. My oldest such books
are rather new, 1975.
We all learn them, HC Andersen-style, as children.
I did a cross-stich motive series some years ago
https://papirfoldning.dk/da/ugensfold/2008-51.html. Note the Quake heart woven
by my son with no help (he came into the living room with the finished heart)
when he was 12 years old (in year 2000), and an eager Quake computer game
player.
I sidetrack. Best regards,
Hans
